Edited by
Benjamin Bonavida

2008

Cancer chemotherapy can be traced in the 1940s when mustine (the prototype nitrogen mustard anticancer chemotherapeutic drug) was injected into a patient with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, resulting in a dramatic reduction in tumor masses [1]. Thereafter, we witnessed the discovery and the important application of several new drugs, such as methotrexate [2], 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP), vincristine (vinca alkaloid), and aminopterin (folic antagonists) [3].